After discussing the concepts of snowshoes and how they work,
we went out and collected all the wood needed. Each person
chose the type of shoe, whether bear claw or teardrop shape
and got to work paring down the different parts.

This shows 2 different ideas. Stu is using a rounded tip with
the frame made from one branch. Chris is taking 2 branches
and will bend them to form the teardrop shape.

Once the frame has been made, cross pieces are put in
place to hold the frame out, secure the boot strapping
and also for weaving the fir branches through.

To test the new shoe, we tried a traditional teardrop
shoe made with rawhide weaving on one foot and the new
survival shoe on the other.

Walking is not as easy as it might look in the movies.
A very wide stance is needed along with good balance.

And now to try it in waist deep snowdrifts.

As you can see, the homemade shoe actually kept Corey on top
of the snow better than the traditional one which sank a little deeper.

We found that without lacing the spruce branches on, the shoe
started losing its weaving and became less useful. We learned
that you need to have a lot of cordage on hand when
making survival snowshoes.